Oct 12 – Over the Border into Jordan

We were picked up at 8:30 this morning for our transfer to Jordan.  At the border the driver passed us off to an agent who helped facilitate our border crossing.  Good thing we had him.  We would have been standing in a long line for hours…a line it turned out we didn’t need to be in at all.  The only delay in the entire process was when Paul “lost” a critical form that the agent had given us 5 minutes before.  Turned out it had fallen out of his pocket…was eventually found. 

On the Jordanian side we were met by other transfer agents who helped get us into Jordan.  Our driver then drove us to our hotel in Acaba.  The hotel is huge and lovely…

and it is right on the beach. 

After checking in to the room we went down to the breakfast room where Tara, our travel agent, was just sitting down to breakfast.  She will be joining us for our travels in Jordan.  We all eventually headed out to explore the hotel property (it is huge with several really large swimming pools).  We also stopped to sign up for a snorkeling trip tomorrow.

We had lunch at the hotel’s beach grill situated between the beach and the pools.  The lunch dishes were uninspiring and somewhat marginal…but the chocolate milkshakes were awesome.

After lunch we started walking out to see some o the city.  Tara had a few things in mind that she wanted to see.  Along the way a taxi driver decided that he was just what we needed to see the sights.  After a lot of back and forth between he and Tara we all decided on his “tour” of the town.  We visited New Ayla, a gated area where we were allowed to drive in.  

The area around the marina was lovely.  The blue and white buildings reminded us a bit of the Greek Isles. 

Tara

The driver then had some sort of “problem” and handed us over to his “brother” (I could no family resemblance at all) to finish the tour.  Turns out the new driver doesn’t speak more than a couple words of English.  Tara wasn’t happy as it was very difficult to find out information. 

We stopped at old Ayla, the original city with just a few ruins having been excavated.

We stopped at a massive plaza, totally empty except for a huge flag pole in the center.  Subsequent Googling revealed that this was the Great Arab Revolt Plaza.  It commemorates the revolt of the Arabs (backed by the British) against the Ottoman Empire in the early 1940's (subject of the movie, Lawrence of Arabia).  

Nearby was the Aqaba Fortress (also known as the Aqaba Castle or the Mamluk Caste, 16th century).  It was undergoing restoration and we couldn't go in.  

We then went to an overlook with good views of the Red Sea and Israel and Egypt beyond.

Then a short drive through the old town/souks and back to the hotel.  It wasn’t a bad tour when you consider that we didn’t have a guide…just a taxi driver who couldn’t speak English.

We spent most of the afternoon relaxing in the room and then headed out in the evening for a walk to the nearby section of town with the souks. 

This is the Al Sharif Al Hussein Bin Ali Mosque.  Al Sharif Al Hussein Bin Ali led the Great Arab Revolt that threw off the Ottoman Empire and allowed Jordan to become an independent country. 

A gentleman at a bakery kept pushing samples on us and after lots of tastings we bought a small tray of goodies for snacking later. 

More wandering of the souk...

where Tara bought some spices.

And we found a place for dinner.  Interesting tables.

 All in all it was a good day.